Is the facial tissue handed out on the roadside safe?

When commuting to and from get off work, there are often people on the side of the road distributing free tissue paper to advertise newly opened stores or election candidates. If you google it, such tissue paper includes packaging and printing costs, and it costs less than one yuan per pack. In addition, when we ate in restaurants outside, the common 300-pump paper towels of unknown brands in restaurants cost less than 10 yuan per pack. These unbranded and cheap facial tissues or paper towels are often used to wipe our mouths and hands, wipe chopsticks and spoons, and even wrap food.



Why are these facial tissues so cheap compared with branded paper products? Let's analyze the production cost of paper first. The first is pulp, which is divided into virgin pulp and recycled pulp from sources, and into the best food grade and industrial pulp from uses. Cheap pulp must be recycled pulp for industrial use. Because the recycled waste paper contains toxic substances such as ink, plastic, viscous substances, fibers, paints, asphalt, etc., and the color is not pure, it needs to be bleached and deodorized with bleaching agents, fluorescent agents, preservatives and various chemical raw materials , decolorization and disinfection, and the original toxic substances such as bisphenol A may still remain in the pulp. These chemical raw materials and toxins are easily absorbed by the blood when wiping the mouth or other parts of the body with thinner mucous membranes. They may interfere with sex hormones and cause baldness, affect reproductive development, and may also cause diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

In addition, in addition to general toilet paper, commonly used facial tissue and paper towels are added with chemical substances such as wet strength agents, talcum powder and softeners in order to increase the durability and smooth touch of wiping. The current wet strength agent has been developed to the third generation, which contains less than 100ppm of chlorine organic matter, and the harm to the human body is the lowest. Chlorine organic compounds have been proved to be carcinogens in medicine. However, considering the cost, the paper products of well-known domestic brands still use the second-generation wet strength agent, and the content of organic chlorine is ten times that of the third-generation. If the cheaper first-generation wet strength agent is used, the content of chlorine organics is more than 100 times that of the third generation. Talcum powder may cause ovarian cancer through experimental research, and the chemical composition of softeners may also cause cancer.

Therefore, from a health point of view, from now on, it is best not to use these unlabeled paper distributed by the roadside or supplied by restaurants to touch the body, so as not to cause health concerns ranging from allergies to cancer. When choosing paper to wipe your mouth, it is best to use toilet paper without wet strength agents, talcum powder and softeners. Contains bleach and fluorescer, so it can be used safely.